Luxury and creativity: exploration, exploitation, or preservation?

This article considers the role of creativity in the production and delivery of luxury. The concept of creativity is closely aligned to the idea of luxury goods as rare and highly crafted, often unique, objects produced through artistic endeavour. Moreover, some luxuries, such as expensive cars and private jets, require leading-edge design and technologically advanced inputs. Although creativity is essential for the development of new luxury goods and services, this article highlights that some luxuries are timeless and eschew the changes associated with radical creative transformations. Following a brief discussion of the nature of luxury and creativity, a number of examples are employed to illustrate the different roles of creativity in the development and delivery of different types of luxury. The relationship between luxury and creativity is shown to be varied and complex